Guild Wars 2

I believe this is one of the better living story updates, it just feels right, seems to have a good amount of story and also has a good balance. I haven’t really enjoyed the living story so far, it seemed to be all over the place and even with knowing scarlet’s plan it still felt like it was all over the place, however this patch feels right and very well constructed.
However there is a small amount of problems I can see, first up green keys drop 5 to 1 compared to the blue and pink, right now I have a tri-key and 5 green keys, something needs to be done about this, they are pointless without each other so its annoying. Next up is the waiting time for chambers, It is far to long, I resorted to overflow jumping to get most of mine. Last up is people who arrive late even just a day or 2 for this patch may have a hard time getting to the top due to the lack of zergs and everyone just skipping up, I could imagine how annoying this would be.
Overall I am impressed and really enjoying myself ingame, this should be the minimum for all future Living story installments Thanks.

Since most of the updates so far brought a lot of QQ, I feel like this one had some positive sides as well (homgz!). While we should give credit to Anet when they do something right, there were still issues.

PROS
- Foreshadowing changes in Kessex Hills weeks before. nice way to implement the living world.
- We got (a little) more info on Marjory and Kasmeer which are ok characters. Rox and Braham are also back, which is what LS needs – development of some existing characters, not constantly introducing new ones.
- Open world content that rewards players with instances – cool concept.
- Fighting hallucinations of characters from the Personal Story was the best thing brought to us by the living story thus far. It’s exactly what LS needs – a personal note for the players, seeing that past matters, build up from previous stories.
- Killing Trahearne was personally the best moment of this update. Seems like Anet has read our criticism of Trahearne and decided to humor us. They should do that more often!
- Cutscene – it’s more than we got in most of the updates, but it should belong to the Cons maybe…

CONS
- (Won’t discuss combat mechanics in the tower here, it’s our fault for running instead of clearing the path. Purely player mentality.)
- Waypoint costs – 5s to 3rd level, SRSLY?! With all the new skins in the gem store and Ascended armor on the horizon, players need something like Queen’s Jubilee to make some cash, not a gold sink like this.
- Boss fights – hmm, where is the challenge? Like in HotW and say revamped Maw, increased health pools =/= more difficult fight, just more tedious.
- No real plot advancement – so what really happened? We’re stopping yet another cartoonish, unrealistic alliance-of-the-week, but Scarlet has managed to escape once again. And we didn’t learn much in the process.
- Cutscene – while nicely done, it didn’t contribute to the story in any way apart from being a good LS summary. Did we find out more about Scarlet or her motives? No. Did we learn more about the Krait? Not really. We knew that she was behind all the silly alliances. We knew that Faren’s panties were fabulous.
- A con to any LS: where are the dragons?

I was just about to make this very thread. I think it’s important to let Anet know what we liked and what we didn’t like so they can keep doing things to improve.

Pro’s:

1. non-rng weapons. This is arguably the best part of this update. Weapons in the gem store that don’t revolve around RNG. I will be buying a full set for the sole purpose of telling Anet that this was the right move.

2. Personal story interaction. This was a very very nice touch, probably my favorite part of the LS so far. More tie ins to the personal story, as well as advancing the story are what players want. Do more of this.

3. Cut scenes. The idea behind having cut scenes advance the story with the absolutely beautiful art work is a great idea… see cons section for the problem.

4. Enemy models. The toxic enemies are pretty cool. They have interesting mechanics, nice animations and good models.

5. Story build up. Having things change in Kessex Hills before hand with hints of what was going on was a nice touch to bring the story to life.

Cons:

1. Zerg content. The tower would have just been a lot more fun if it was a 5-man dungeon. Literally nothing else would of had to change. But with a zerg you just rush by everything, miss the details, and don’t care about mechanics. Without the zerg trying to solo it, you die.

2. Story, or lack there of. While the cutscene was well done, it literally did not advance the story at all. All it did was tell us what we’ve done for the last 6 months. I know what I did, I was there. We got no explanation for why the krait teamed up with the nightmere court. We have no idea what the purpose behind this tower is. We still don’t know why scarlet is doing what she’s doing. this is supposed to be a living STORY, but currently there is no actual story.

While my pros list is much bigger than my cons list, the lack of a story really made this patch an overall 3/10 for me.

hedix.1986:

- A con to any LS: where are the dragons?

I can tell you where the other dragons are. They aren’t in Tyria anymore. After seeing the pathetic Zhaitan Fight they instantly flew to the Anet Headquarters and demanded a fight that is doing their poor friend and his epicness justice instead of the crap fight he has to endure at the moment. And now they are waiting until Zhaitan gets an epic fight.

hedix.1986:

Since most of the updates so far brought a lot of QQ, I feel like this one had some positive sides as well (homgz!). While we should give credit to Anet when they do something right, there were still issues.

PROS
- Foreshadowing changes in Kessex Hills weeks before. nice way to implement the living world.
- We got (a little) more info on Marjory and Kasmeer which are ok characters. Rox and Braham are also back, which is what LS needs – development of some existing characters, not constantly introducing new ones.
- Open world content that rewards players with instances – cool concept.
- Fighting hallucinations of characters from the Personal Story was the best thing brought to us by the living story thus far. It’s exactly what LS needs – a personal note for the players, seeing that past matters, build up from previous stories.
- Killing Trahearne was personally the best moment of this update. Seems like Anet has read our criticism of Trahearne and decided to humor us. They should do that more often!
- Cutscene – it’s more than we got in most of the updates, but it should belong to the Cons maybe…

CONS
- (Won’t discuss combat mechanics in the tower here, it’s our fault for running instead of clearing the path. Purely player mentality.)
- Waypoint costs – 5s to 3rd level, SRSLY?! With all the new skins in the gem store and Ascended armor on the horizon, players need something like Queen’s Jubilee to make some cash, not a gold sink like this.
- Boss fights – hmm, where is the challenge? Like in HotW and say revamped Maw, increased health pools =/= more difficult fight, just more tedious.
- No real plot advancement – so what really happened? We’re stopping yet another cartoonish, unrealistic alliance-of-the-week, but Scarlet has managed to escape once again. And we didn’t learn much in the process.
- Cutscene – while nicely done, it didn’t contribute to the story in any way apart from being a good LS summary. Did we find out more about Scarlet or her motives? No. Did we learn more about the Krait? Not really. We knew that she was behind all the silly alliances. We knew that Faren’s panties were fabulous.
- A con to any LS: where are the dragons?

wanna add to the con list, running up the tower with a good sized group of folks, everyone dips into an instance, once you come out 1. you might be on empty overflows, separated from party members, etc. or 2. the zerg has moved on and everything has reset and your stranded. Sure you could try yolo running to the next check point, but good luck if there is an event blocking the exit. You’re better off way pointing to the bottom and paying the 3s for the second level or the 5s for the 3rd level

I’ll second a lot of the pros
-Non RNG/gamble box weapons
-No stupid “Push f 50 times” achievements for grind sake.
-Skill based achieve that awards a mini? Yay. Moar please!
Strangely, in the update that has players quite literally run through a maze they seem to have dropped a lot of the cheap “train the rat in a maze”/skinner box garbage that wasn’t really fun, but just trying to keep people logged in longer. I hope this launch turns out to be successful, after day one it certainly feels like one of the best updates.

My main con has to do with other players
-Oh, you just meticulously fought your way through 75% of a level with two friends? Here comes some Kilroy idiot and his train with a bunch of elites and some vets. And he sets off every mine spore for good measure so when you dodge away from these enemies you get blown up. Hell is other people.
-5s warp cost is a little much when the Kilroy above gets you killed since you have to pay to wp and repair armor anyways
-Scarlet’s play by play LS recap cutscene was pretty corny IMO

Tadz.2870:

However there is a small amount of problems I can see, first up green keys drop 5 to 1 compared to the blue and pink, right now I have a tri-key and 5 green keys, something needs to be done about this, they are pointless without each other so its annoying.

if you read the description of the key pieces, you’ll notice that their drops are bound to the location you fight in the tower. Go to another floor and you’ll get the other pieces.

Pros:

• Non-instanced tower with challenging enemies.
• Fun concept of mini-instances with interesting champions.
• Three very nice new weapon skins.
• Content emphasizes teamwork and gives value to non-zerker specs.

Cons:

• Normal mobs have too little health; Veterans are about right; Elites and Champs have far too much.
• Mini-instance bosses have far too much health for a limited party size. Even with interesting mechanics, I find myself losing interest about 3/4 through the fight.
• Yet again, the desirable cosmetic skins are released through the gem store.
• The biggest con of all is that there is foreshadowing for things that might happen later on, but there is no story actually IN this update. This type of “story update” with no progression of the story is becoming very disheartening.

Vick.6805:

• The biggest con of all is that there is foreshadowing for things that might happen later on, but there is no story actually IN this update. This type of “story update” with no progression of the story is becoming very disheartening.

Don’t worry, they did acknowledge that the story hasn’t been an arc so much as a flat line. I’ve been told this will be fixed…after like 4 months or so because that’s their lead time.

X: Rebirth comes out in 2 days…

ZudetGambeous.9573:

2. Story, or lack there of. While the cutscene was well done, it literally did not advance the story at all. All it did was tell us what we’ve done for the last 6 months. I know what I did, I was there. We got no explanation for why the krait teamed up with the nightmere court. We have no idea what the purpose behind this tower is. We still don’t know why scarlet is doing what she’s doing. this is supposed to be a living STORY, but currently there is no actual story.

That is not quite true. We don’t know any more about Scarlet but during one part of the instance you hear the Nightmare Court members talking about why the Kraits joined them.